Two Brothers is an Action Adventure game that features a classic Gameboy aesthetic. Roy Guarder, inventor, scientist, and philosopher, is on an expedition to discover the origins of life. This quest has brought him to "The Cursed Lands," a stretch of land so dangerous and shrouded in mystery that it hasn't been explored in over...

January 24

Gearing up for releasing the beta I wanted to talk a bit about what changed on a more technical level.

I guess I'll just jump right in!

The first thing is the game now supports 16:9 aspect ratio natively. To get this to work well we had to reformat some of the games graphics. Often things that you haven't gotten to yet are hidden just out of view in our previous level layouts.

During the process of reformatting the levels we made the choice to build the games world on a grid, much like most other pixel art games.

As you might see, this results in the areas looking a lot cleaner. This always bothered me during development, but when I admitted it to myself I was too far along to do anything about it in MMF2.

How does this change control?

If you think about pokemon, when you press the directional pad Red or Blue walks one grid space over in the direction you selected.

Two Brothers isn't that sort of game though. For action to work, you need a bit more finesse. In the Multi Media Fusion 2 build of Two Brothers Roy moved by the pixel. This ended up feeling a bit messy, and a tad inauthentic.

So in the unity version of the game Roy now moves on quarter grids, much like how Link moved in Zelda A Link to the Past.

I’ll post a video of this in action once youtube finishes processing.

—

Things to make playing better:
There will now be access to volume controls at any moment in the game.
You can also change control schemes on the fly.
Thankfully this was much easier to handle now that we’re using Unity. MMF2 really isn’t ideal for a game of this size. LESSON LEARNED!

—
Where we are now:
We’re about two thirds away from completing the new enemy AI. There were 3 basic enemy movement styles in Two Brothers, and now there will be 10+

Each one requires more strategy, and act differently depending on the weapon you are using.

We’re also redesigning the first dungeon in the game. Adding more action elements. We’ve done this to a few of the other dungeons. We worked in reverse.

We’re also overhauling the heroes of color quest to flesh out the story there, as well as to add bosses to the end of each quest.
—

December 28, 2014

So around the end of January to the middle of February I hope to upload a build of Chromophore (what I'm calling the Unity version of Two Brothers) onto Steam. It will be a Mac Version, a Linux version, and the PC version.

It's not entirely done, so there will still be some issues, and some areas will have to be accessed via a level selector.

After months of hearing the suggestion to just upload what I'm working on as I do it so I can get proper feedback, it finally got into my thick skull to do so.

First week I may put up the engine in the form of a sandbox area, just to get some feedback on the core new engine. Show people how it's shaping up. A week or less after upload larger portions of the game.

I've been doing testing privately and the feedback has been good. I won't talk it up, because that's just stupid.

So, that's the plan. I'll keep you guys updated.
Also going to start a devlog/change log so you can see which advice I'm taking from feedback as I do it etc.

Reviews

“...The soundtrack for Two Brothers is elaborate and enchanting. It’s a slow burn that’s going to take a long time for you to fully digest, but if you like game soundtracks, I’d be hard pressed to offer you a better one. Full of original content, and drawing from the most memorable games of previous generations, it will give other composers something to aim for when they score their companies next title.”
KBMOD

“Two Brothers is a wonderful retro-inspired game with an interesting concept and solid core gameplay underneath it all so it isn’t just another love letter to the past that offers nothing else but nostalgia.”
Gamecepticon

“Between the great story, amazing music, and fascinating world, I’d definitely recommend players to check out Two Brothers. While there are certainly some problems with the game, there’s a lot here to enjoy you’ll be hard-pressed to find elsewhere.”
Average Joe Gaming

About This Game

Two Brothers is an Action Adventure game that features a classic Gameboy aesthetic. Roy Guarder, inventor, scientist, and philosopher, is on an expedition to discover the origins of life. This quest has brought him to "The Cursed Lands," a stretch of land so dangerous and shrouded in mystery that it hasn't been explored in over 700 years. When Roy finds what he's looking for, he is met with a terrible fate. Roy no longer finds himself a living man. He is greeted with a world of colors he never believed could have existed! One obsession leads to another and Roy begins to walk the line of life and death - sometimes intentionally ending his own life - just so he can see this land of beauty and color again.

But something is strange: Why is Roy the only man who can cross so easily between the worlds of the living and the dead? What has given him this unique ability? How will he reconcile the existence of an afterlife he never believed could even exist?
▪ Explore a vast non-linear world and story with multiple endings, and deep side quests!
▪ Take the game world from black and white 8bit to full color 16bit!
What makes Two Brothers unique: Two Brothers takes a long hard look at death in video games... when the player is killed in combat or triggers a deadly trap, instead of being greeted a familiar GAMEOVER screen, the player finds himself in what we call the "Afterlife Hub".
This realm of the dead is a colorful and mysterious place where the player can explore, find clues, and interact with characters who have passed on in the games story... sometimes even bringing some of them back from the dead.
When the player wants to return to gameplay, they can jump from the edge of the heavens and get back in to the action and exploration!
This mechanic is vital to the gameplay, as sometimes interacting with the dead is just as important as interacting with the living... this feature often requires the player intentionally ending their session in a game over, just to cross over to the other side.

This game is a love letter to classic 8-bit gaming, and more specifically, the Game Boy. While the game plays most similar to The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, it also has references to Pokemon and Final Fantasy. Since the Game Boy was one of my first gaming loves, and Link's Awakening my favorite title on the system, the game just hit me hard with its nostalgia hammer.

The story has some very profound, and dare I say it, vaguely religious themes, at least what I played of it so far. The writing is easily the game's strongest aspect. It's full of refernces to classic games, but it also contains a great deal of pathos and questions about death, science vs faith, and the afterlife. The soundtrack is good as well.

But this thing has more bugs than the last two Bethesda games combined, and even compared to the games it tries to emulate, it actually falls short technically. It plays in an extremely tiny window, and pressing the Escape button quits the game entirely instead of pausing it. You have to be very careful when playing this game lest you run into glitches. And that's too bad, because everything about this game shows great promise.

Very, very clever Zelda-like game. Tells a good story while affectionately poking fun at older games and using the pseudo-GB format to do some interesting things. Decent length so far, gameplay is pretty good (if "clunky" much like older games often would be), and the music's great. Unfortunately, it seems to have a fair number of glitches, mostly related to collision detection; just be careful and consider backing up your saves every once in a while. (The game autosaves very frequently, so don't worry about losing progress if you have to restart it.)

There's a lot of bugs, which is sad because I like the story and the world design. The combat system is boring and usually it seems like buttom smashing is more efficient than actual strategy. I've got stuck in moving walls and I've been stuck forever in mid air because some rats were standing under me and I couldn't fall all the way down from a ledge. Some graphics layers are in wrong places. The water animations only work in places where there are splashes, otherwise it's the regular walking animation. There seems to be no other way to get back to main menu than to restart the game.

Anyway, I hope they fix all this. Other than the bugs, I really like it. Seems like they forgot to playtest it completely.

Oh, brother. This is perhaps a great game that shows we've come a long way from the 8-bit world of Space Invaders and Pong. Two Brothers pays homage to all the great games of yesteryear and combines that with modern surprises.

The story is definitely the game's best feature. Growing up as a 90's kid, death in a video game was a great deal of annoyance and frustration. Two Brothers took that notion and completely deconstructed it and shaped into a robust mechanism that changes everything we've known about death in gameplay. Everything. The budding geniuses at AckkStudios reminds us perhaps how we can deal and relate to death, and how we cope with losing someone important to us. The game does so with a great amount of light heartedness and bittersweet quality that remind us of days long gone through the main character who, might I dare say, is quite the gentleman of fortune.

The gameplay is somewhat of a thank you gift to gamers from the past decades who are familiar with the top-down structure of classic Zelda and Sword of Mana. You're in for quite a treat there.

The soundtrack is also quite wonderful and sets the bar high as it draws on inspiration from the classical music to metal to the legendary scores of Nobuo Uematsu.

However, the game isn't without flaws. There were bugs at launch, but the team at AckkStudios has been quite receptive to consumer feedback and is constantly working to correct glitches with rapid updates and fast bug support. Just reminiscing a bit, but who remembers Nintendo's game help hotline? That's pretty much AckkStudios's Facebook Page.

With bittersweet sentimentality, the verdict is that Two Brothers features graphics lush with fond memories and homages, a great soundtrack, and quite a treat in gameplay. Two Brothers gives all its love to games long ago and to games in days to come. This was a game worth waiting for.

I bought this game through the humble store, and have been playing it well before the game was put up on Steam, but I figured I'd share my opinion.

I honestly don't know where to start! There are so many wonderful things about it. The story is, perhaps, the quality that captivated me the most. Right off the bat, something happens in the game (I don't want to unveil any spoilers...) that is utterly heartbreaking for the lead character, Roy Guarder. As the game unfolds, more and more details - a la traditional RPG fashion - are unveiled, resulting in a scenario that is reminiscent of high quality RPG stories, yet incredibly unique in its own regard.

The gameplay is what you'd expect from the trailers: a top-down Legend of Zelda style, sword slashing, action/adventure RPG. You even find hearts and money in the grass! It definitely holds true to the style it was emulating. There are some pretty wonky bosses, too. Quite clever!

Don't get me started on the music. It has, in my opinion, raised the bar quite high for the genre of video game soundtracks. If this game gets enough publicity, indie games and non-indie games alike will have something to strive for in their choice of composers and soundtracks. I can't get enough of the music. Every area has a new tune, with many of them revisiting the main themes in the game. I thought it would get repetitive after a while, but every reprise of the main theme brings something new to the table. Magnificent! I'm pretty sure the composers/sound team are a group of three guys; I don't know how they did it, but man, did they do it!

Even with all of the great things about this game, there are still a few downsides, which is expected in any video game. The best word to describe them all without going into severe detail is "Bugs." Unfortunately, there are some bugs and glitches, albeit not game breaking, that require some patience. I say that with complete confidence, as the team at AckkStudios is working tirelessly to repair them and update the game, according to their Facebook page. Think of games like Skyrim or Battlefield 4...sometimes it takes months before the game's quirks and issues are cleaned out. But also think how GREAT those games are; Skyrim is unmatched, yet it launched with an encyclopedia of bugs.

Overall, this game is amazing. If you can overlook some of the glitches and bugs associated with the current build of the game, it's an incredible experience. I was so captivated by everything, that the glitches and bugs didn't even bother me, knowing that their doing their best to clean them out. When they do, I will be sure to REPLAY this game, to get the best experience possible. With the story, gameplay, and ESPECIALLY the music, this game is not to be missed. Play it, and enjoy it!

The game looks like it has potential, but the developer also looks like he has given up on it. Its full of broken things, glitches, bugs, and constant crashes. The dev said a patch was coming multiple times, but nothing has come out for half a year.

The gameplay is fun (as people have said, similar to Zelda) and I like the story so far. There are plenty of references to older games - Zelda and Pokemon seem to be the main inspirations for the layout - and there's quite a bit of comedy relief. The only issues I have with it are the lack of responsiveness in combat (but that's not such a huge deal) and the unreliable autosave. I've followed the instructions and not exited game whilst going through doors and still lost my save file (luckily only 1 hour's worth of gameplay - thank hell for that). Would recommend but make sure you back up your save files!

Two Brother is a really unique and strange game. I wanted to write strange little game... but I'm on my second play through now that it's on Steam and the game has a lot more content than I've come to expect from Indie Games.

Two Brothers has a great story with lots of intriguing dialogue and plot twists. There are some moments that generally shocked and even scared me. The game has a ton of original boss battles. That's when the game is at it's best. When it's trying to be Zelda, or Allundra, it isn't perfect but when it's being Two Brothers the game is honestly brilliant. There is one battle where you fight a Missingno like boss, or "creepy pasta" boss and holy ****it's scary.

The soundtrack is great. I found myself humming a lot of the tunes and I went ahead and bought the soundtrack of Bandcamp so I could listen in the car.

There are some hitches in the gameplay, but each build it seems to get more polished. If you're down to try something original and are okay with something that plays against expectations of indie games and Zelda games you'll love this!

Firstly, this game is full of bugs and annoying glitches. On the bright side, the developers are extremely responsive and will address any issues you have. Especially if you message their facebook page (AckkStudios).

Minus the technical issues, Two Brothers is extremely fun and nostalgic. It feels and plays just like an adventure game from the 90's. The dialogue is witty, the story is engaging and,the soundtrack is also a great plus.

Of course, we can't forget that the game is glitchy. So, if you don't want to message the developers your problems, don't get this game. If you're okay with the bugs, then go for it. Otherwise, wait for more patches or a nice sale. Although, considering how rare it is to come across such great developers, Two brothers is definitely worth the $15.

Two Brothers is the perfect successor to the games made by Quintet in the 1990's.This game has an absolutely wonderful story, graphics, and music, but is just a tad glitchy at times. The gameplay is fairly simple, but engaging. It plays similarly to Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. By itself, the gameplay is fun, but this game truly shines artistically. I was hooked on the story within the first scene, and I guarantee that if you give this game 15 minutes of your time, you won't regret being drawn into this amazing game.

This monochromatic tale tells the story of an explorer/scientist brother combo dealing with death and life. Roy Guarder was out exploring forsaken lands with his wife when tragedy strikes and they are both killed. Except while his wife moved on he was stuck in some strange colorful limbo world. The story follows Roy’s attempt to come to terms with this strange new change in his life and exploring the world with his brother to collect the color pieces and uh… er… I think show them to some group of scientists to prove Roy isn’t insane? I’m not entirely sure actually why we’re out risking our necks for colors other than they’re there.

This game seems to be somebody’s love child with classic 1990′s Nintendo. The game plays a lot like a combination of Link’s Awakening and Zelda 2 with a similar over world to go around in with various locales to explore. Combat is like much of the old top-down Zelda games but with a large variety of melee weapons to chose from and an infinite supply of ‘throwing arrows’ to hurl at enemies. There’s a few pokes at Pokemon too with a “it’s hyper effective” screen popping up when you’re using a weapon enemies are weak to and even a weird not entirely sure if intentionally buggy boss fight against MissingNo.

It is certainly interesting the way the game incorporates things we generally forgive into the game’s story. For example your inventory is carried around on the back of a companion and you ‘jump’ into his backpack to access things. Also, death is but a minor inconvenience for Roy who caught in some strange after-life loop. He can’t seem to die but instead travels back and forth freely between living and dead. So when you die you’re just sent back to the strange colorful after-life world. Once there you just gather yourself up and go back into the fight. Also the game is monochromatic but it seems that the characters of the world are used to it being varying shades of mustard and olive. The introduction of colors pretty much freaks everyone out and Roy’s ranting about them has had him labeled as a loony.

In fact dieing is kinda an important thing to do and at various points during the game you must go to the strange after-life world to achieve certain things. The after-life being some strange floating platform in the sky also has a telescope which lets you look down on the planet and spot where the color shards are. It’s sadly about the only sense of direction you get as you wander around the world trying to find said shards.

And now this is where I have to start complaining about the game. The story is pretty decent, although at times it can dump some pretty wordy sequences upon you. But combat starts getting pretty dull and repetitive after a while. Most enemies provide little in terms of challenge and just become repetitive time sinks. The occasional boss fight is usually well done but are so few and far between that they don’t make up for having to slog through hoards of pretty uninspired enemies. Despite them having different sprites and varying amounts of health and damage there’s really only two enemies in the game. Those that wander around shooting projectiles and those that charge at you. Which get pretty boring after a while.

And then sadly, there are the bugs. There’s a few pretty bad ones in the game. Mark, your inventory guy, I think is not supposed to follow you into the afterlife each time you die. If you try to access your inventory while in the afterlife it screws something up as when you come back to the real world you appear off the map. The only way out is to quit the game and relaunch it. There’s also a few points where you will get stuck and nothing can break you out of it. The music track in the museum is horrendously screwed up and is just a loud high pitch screech that made me want to throw my headphones against the wall. I also have issue with the game not remembering my preference for a game-pad, having to select it in the menus each time. And really, who makes the escape button close the game instantly with no confirmation menu?

The music of the game though is pretty darn good and the graphics for what they are aren’t bad. I even dig the theme that buildings int he world are actually giant living creatures. Heck if this game was released 20 years ago the graphics would be amazing but today they are just mediocre sprites.

It is clear this is a someone’s self indulgent love fest to games from the early 90′s. While there is some fun to be had and a decent (if not a little cliche) story to be told here the game started to drag for me. I really wanted to finish the game before I wrote a review but in the end the repetitive combat and bugs in the game really started to turn me off. Having killed many a AA battery on my old grey Gameboy brick I’m as nostalgic as anyone for such things but I would only recommend Two Brothers if it were on sale. Also give it a pass if you can’t stand Gameboy quality graphics.

this game is such a charm. the music is excellent. the gameplay is quirky, yet enjoyable. the story is heartbreaking. i dont know what there isn't to like about this game! i have not run into the errors a couple of people have been dealing with on the forums. whatever the problems are, not many people are having them. the devs are patching everything up, apparently. i say go for it. buy it. its good ♥♥♥♥.

If you won't truck through an extremely buggy game, then pass on this one.

The story is very compelling—and while the game isn't killing you: getting you stuck in walls; blasting your ears with glitched audio; barrading you with typos; not having attacks, which indicate that they've hit, actually hit; or not being allowed to proceed for whatever unknown reasons—it can be veeeery immersive. Hell, I've spent quite a bit of time on this game on my first playthrough, and I still haven't completed it. All the side quests are very engaging, and though the game has very little direction, the main story had me 'pining' to know what will come next. It had that classic, old video game story which deals with many adult themes very well in the context of a child's game.

So, if you're willing to pay 15$ for a buggy, seemingly incomplete game for a great story and truck through it, then I recommend this game. Make your assessment, eh?

I'm disappointed in this game, well, actually I still like the game but there are so many bugs I can't even get past the first dungeon. My friend bought me this game and I feel bad because I can't even play the game properly. I heard the developers were making a new game and I hope they fix the bugs in this game before going onto a different game.

I think the storyline is really good based on a couple of videos I have seen and watched. I wish I can play it .・゜゜・（／╭╮＼）・゜゜・．

I am a player who has finished this game prior to its release on Steam, so please ignore how Steam thinks I've only played this game for 0.3 hours. In actuality I must have put at least 30 hours into this wonderful gem. I am a huge believer in this game and couldn't wait to write a review on Steam for the devs.

I am an old school gamer at heart and this game truly strums many heart strings for me. If you enjoy old school games, buy it. You will only tease yourself by reading more of my review.

The music is nostalgic, yet new and exciting. The composers somehow found a balance between old and new. The music is catchy and simple while chip tune like and then when the game gets intense it switches to full orchestration while upping the complexity. Then sometimes it sits comfortably in SNES land. The sound track alone is worth the game purchase, let me tell you.

The story is something else. It’s not your typical story, and yet its setting is. Again, the balance of old and new is there. The brothers are instantly memorable and you feel their strife, their victories, and their journey. You take it with them. I haven’t felt this way about a game’s story in a long time. It made me think and analyze lines of text. Just like old school games, there aren’t millions lines of text, so it takes old school gamers to read between the lines to fully ‘get’ it. In short, it got my mind running on full throttle, just like the games of old. Revisiting the glory days of videogame RPG story telling has never been so sweet!

The graphics are beautiful. If you enjoyed Gameboy and Snes, look no further. The game starts out like Gameboy, but changes as the story develops. I feel I need to say nothing else here, it’s simply awesome!

The gameplay is great. Fighting monsters require good use of arrows when at range and melee when hiding behind corners and using your weapon’s reach. And, in the open, you can’t help but swing madly with your favorite weapon as the enemies charge you. It’s great old school fun.

There are also great puzzles that break conventions. You’ll need to be ready to approach these puzzles differently than you did the puzzles of games from back in the day. Just a fair a warning. ;)

Being the first game from Ackkstudios, there are some bumps in the road. But, hear me, I’ve been with them from the beginning and I know for a fact they are working amazingly hard to constantly improve the game. They are committed to find that “Nintendo polish” the game needs before being put on the WiiU. And, I believe in them that they will get there. I’ll be supporting them the entire way.

That being said, here are the negatives. The collisions are off here and there and in general there are some bugs. Sometimes they affect the flow of the game. However, if you love old school games at all, you’ll be open to fighting through the couple of rough patches in order to continue the story. Also, I haven’t played the game through on Steam yet, so there is a good chance many of the bugs that…bugged me…haha, are gone. I’ll be on the look out! That brings up another point, if you find a bug, the devs are very responsive and willing to listen and help their players. The communication I have had with them has been amazing; they want their players to believe in their game as much as they do.

In all, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this game and the memories from it will pleasantly haunt my mind for years to come. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to start my second play through and get a different ending. :D

From the moment that I first saw screenshots of Two Brothers I knew that it was something I had to keep my eye on. The game plays like A Link to the Past, while also adding in new mechanics to give the classic Action Adventure a fresh take. The biggest thing that I can think of is how the developers have done away with the traditional game over screen and replaced it with the Afterlife. Also the music of Two Brothers is one of the best soundtracks in recent memory. I’ve put more than 10 hours into the game so far and there is so much that I havnt done.